Sportswear, should it cost you a fortune?

img_0926We all know them, those girls who seem to have a never-ending collection of sportswear. If they’re not walking around in their cute pink outfit it’s the zebra one, blue one or maybe something brand-new. Annoying it is for sure, how on earth do they pay for it all? Most sports brands are expensive but is it really necessary to spend that much on your gym wear?

First of all I’m going to be honest with you, I am one of these annoying girls… Here I said it. But even I do not grow money at home. So how do you get such a big collection and how much money should you be spending on it?

Brands

The price of your gear has a lot to do with that tiny name on the label. Are you really paying for the quality, or just for the brand? This differs and if you’ve got a lot to spend who cares. If you don’t have that much money to spend –or want to spend it on something else– it is really important to find a good balance between the price and the quality.

Tops

For tank tops I personally don’t care that much. I have plenty from H&M and they work fine for me. As long as the material isn’t too thick I’m happy.

Same goes for sport bras. Might be different if you’re blessed with some actual boobs but for me every bra is okay as long as there’s enough stretch in it. They’ve got some real cute ones at Forever21!

Tights

It gets a bit more difficult when we’re talking about tights though. For tights the material really is important since they are tight –what a surprise-, but also because they cover quite a big area of your body. Your legs are constantly in motion –unless you use tights for netflix and chill of course-.

I have some tights from non sportswear brands like H&M and they cause me no trouble when I’m training upper body. Whenever I’m training my legs though there’s no cell in my brain that would even consider wearing these. I do need to add that I am an overly sensitive person and even the tiniest stitch will make me start screaming while tearing of the evil piece of clothing. Also important to add; it isn’t always about the brand. Some of my ‘more expensive’ tights are also not stretchy enough for my squats. It’s all about material.

Still the most important aspect of your tights –unless you train at some sort of nudist gym– is how see through they are. Or said even better how NOT see through. it happened to me once –still traumatized– and trust me it is not fun to find this out after 2 years of unknowingly bending over etc. This pretty image for all guys at the gym was sponsored by Nike. A brandname really doesn’t say it all.

Shoes

Still, if there’s anything you should be spending your money on it’s a pair of good shoes. ‘bad’ quality clothes might get you a bit sweaty or less bendy, but a pair of bad shoes can cause some serious injuries. I can’t give you that many tips on how to choose your shoes since it all depends on the kind of training you do. Go to a store and ask for some professional advice. And no, if they try to talk you into buying some new ultra tech pair of Louboutin priced trainers you shouldn’t buy them. Take advice seriously but don’t be a fool either.

Shop Smart

In the end we all want good quality but we also want good prices. It might seem impossible but it isn’t. I’ve got some tips for you to get the most and the best out of your money!

  • Try to get your basics (like tops) at for instance H&M.
  • Do invest in at least one pair of good tights.
  • Get yourself some good shoes for a fair price.
  • Find some factory stores.
  • Ultimate tip: wait for sale!

So many of my sports clothes are bought on sale. The price difference between a quality product on sale and a normal priced ‘less quality’ product fades tremendously. If I see a sale sign on a sports store I’ll be sure to use those trained legs to run inside as fast as I can.

Anyway, this post has become much longer than I intended so I hope I’ve had your attention up until the end.

Most important thing? We’ve all got different preferences and body shapes. What feels like a second skin for me might be the most uncomfortable thing you’ve ever worn. Don’t buy something because everyone else is wearing it. Buy it because you like it and it makes you feel good.

img_2681

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One thought on “Sportswear, should it cost you a fortune?

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s